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Published: October 17th 2008
Tamarindo
Tamarindo beachWe have done our fair share of traveling and have stayed in and seen some pretty bad accommodation. But this last week we have splurged and become champagne backpackers. It all started after our time in San Juan del Sur. . . we had both been sick for days, had to force ourselves to move on. After a long bus ride that literally went in circles before eventually breaking down, we arrived into Playa Tamarindo, Costa Rica. We checked into a 4 star beachside resort and started living in luxury. The hotel was beautiful, with an ocean front pool, impeccable grounds and huge rooms with king size beds and english T.V. In the morning we woke up and filled up on the buffet breakfast. The day was spent lounging poolside, wondering the abandon beach. Tamarindo itself is a surf town, located on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. Lots of surfers hanging around town, many restaurants and bars line the streets. In another champagne backpacking moment, we decided that the public bus system was no longer good enough for us. So we rented a SUV, a luxury SUV to be exact. Having the freedom to go whenever and where ever we
Tamarindo
Tamrindo beach. like is great. The Costa Rican highway is easy to navigate and there are lots of ocean side spots to stop for camping, a quick beach dip or a picnic. Our first destination in our SUV was Samara. About 2.5 hours down the coast from Tamarindo, Samara is a smaller beach town. The beaches of Costa Rica are different form ones we´ve seen before in that the lush green jungle comes right to the ocean edge, sometimes so close that there is no room to lay a towel. We have now left the coastline and have made our way to Monteverde. A town way high up in the mountains, in the misdt of a cloud forest. The scenic drive consisted of highway, unpaved road and 4x4 ing down the muddy roads, taking local transport would have likely taken a whole days worth of traveling time. Instead it took us just a few hours. Monteverde, while wet and rainy, was definately beautiful. Lots to do and see but the most exciting for us was the canopy tour. We woke up early and in rain pouring down. Made the drive to Sky Trek where we were outfitted with rain ponchos and led
Tamarindo
Our pool at our resort. to the long gondola ride up the misty mountian. This took us to the first of 9 zip lines. I gotta admit that I was really glad when the guide announced that it was too windy to ride in singles . . me and Ryan would have to go tandom. Perfect as I was already scarred to go it alone! We zipped through the rain and mist, hundreds of meters above the ground, our eyes blurred by the water in our eyes. All you could see whizzzing by were the tops of trees, coming out of the mist. We made it through our first zip line and the 8 that followed. Such a great experiece. Both thrilling and scary. Not quite knowing what lay ahead in the clouds, just holding on to the tiny rope that was guiding you through the fogginess. Even though it down poured the whole time it was definately well worth it. What a great experience. Soaking wet and still buzzing with adrenaline we got in the SUV for the 4 hour ride to La Fortuna. Turns out, even though it is rainy season, Costa Rica is not prepared for the rain. A road ´hazard´that we
are still uncertain to what it was, occured. We spent 5 hours in a line up on the highway. Then almost out of gas we cursed our luck the next 15 km until we finally saw the bright lights of the Shell station. Filled up and ready to tackle the next portion of our journey, we gave up on La Fortuna as it was still several hours away. We are currently settled into a hotel just out of San Jose, awaiting our flight to more luxury. Early tomorrow morning we fly to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic where our champagne backpacking continues as we check into the 5 star Bahia Principe for Lisa and Ken´s wedding.
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